According to GBW Mathis has made his way into the starting lineup at CB for the Army game but he simply does not hold a candle to Avery or Terrence Talbott and so we will deliberately ignore him and slam the door in his face even if he tries to hop aboard. Which makes complete sense. Because he's short. And Rodriguez obviously can't stand short players. The man is height-crazy! (sarcasm)

Greg Robinson might not play this way for his entire time at Michigan, but not once last year did we run out a nickel package with a slot corner. A slot corner in the 2009 defense would have been a benchwarmer 100% of the time.

Thank you for telling us that Rodriguez doesn't mind recruiting short people, since he brought in Martavious Odoms, Vincent Smith, and Teric Jones, not to mention current commits like Terrence Talbott and Drew Dileo and Courtney Avery.

He's a 4 star on every site and an instate guy. I'd love to have Mathis. He's also from an important school, even though none of the guys we got from Cass have seemed to pan out yet. There will be more coming up the pike. Hopefully he turns blue with Witty not qualifying.

If Dior decides to come to Michigan, I'd welcome him with open arms. He is an elite, explosive athlete and I'd happily take as many of those as we can get our mitts on. So what if he lacks height. Put him in the slot, where Drake has just vacated a spot. I'm sure the coaches can find a way to use his exceptional athleticism.

of the silent commit status for these two. UM appears to still lead according to them and TomVH's recent interview, but Scout doesn't seem to consider them silent commits any more.

But even with that, I don't think that opens the door for Mathis.
In this class you still have Cullen, Avery and Talbott as CB's. That's still a pretty good haul. I'd rather them replace Grimes/Murphy with Knight or Parker and a MLB.

And Mathis is still ranked considerably higher on both Rivals and Scout than Avery or Talbott. We'd all prefer all of our CB's were 6'3" with the wingspan of a condor and ran a 4.1, but sometimes you have to settle for the best cover guy in the state of Michigan this year...

I don't think we're getting him, but Farrell (yes, consider the source) and Kurelic (yes, consider the source) have both made statements that indicate they believe he's not a lock for Oregon.

It'll be interesting to see where he goes. It's probably 90% Oregon, but I'll be pumped if he makes the right choice.

I mean, it probably wouldn't be a bad pick up. Bring him in at corner, and if he doesn't work out there then move him to slot since we aren't getting Drake and all. I'd be alright if Mathis is the replacement for Drake.

"jg2112;" thought you were a big proponent of Cissoko last year, citing and/or defending his lack of play due to possible lingering injuries and preaching patience as we was a true soph? Maybe my memory serves me wrong.

You are saying short like it is one height. Yes, some short corners have succeeded. Can you tell me how many 5'6" corners have succeeded?

He would give up at least 9" (in height for all you TWSS guys out there) to a guy like M Floyd. I don't care how good a guys cover skills are, when you give up that kind of height to a WR you are going to come out on the losing end more often than not.

Most teams second WR's over 6' as well, so he would even give up 6" to them.

Short is one thing, 5'6" is another.

If their thought is to bring him in as a slot, I am fine with that given the Drake thing. But even Cissoko, who was described almost exactly as Dior has been his senior year and was a 5*, had more height than him. We all saw how he got abused by taller receivers this year.

I am not saying there is no hope for short DB's but 5'6" is a problem at CB IMHE.

i think that's right. part of the reason he was never high on us is that we were supposedly recruiting him as a slot, not a cb. at this point it looks like we'd be lucky to have him as either. also, bill kurelic is an idiot.

Dior is headed to Eugene, but even if he decides he wants to play close home, he'll go to MSU. I would love to have Dior but with the commitments of Avery and Talbott, we just arent able to take him this year.

How tall was Donavon Warren, I was thinking 6'2" but if he was shorter(Warren) I think he'd had been just as good. Mathis probably has some 'hops' if he's that short and plays DB so we'll see. He'll probably end up in EL.